Yes, it is absolutely legal to convert your tourist visa to a student visa.
With effect from 1st July, 2016 people on tourists and business visas are able to convert their visas to student visas.
We get a lot of queries from people travelling to Australia on tourist visas where they wish to convert their visas into student visas and we have helped many of those clients to get admission in various Institutions and helped them to get student visas onshore.
This is a question that strikes the mind of many people who enter Australia on a visitor visa. But, you have to understand that if you are currently living in Australia on a visitor visa then it can be a little difficult for you to acquire a student visa.
Another potential reason is that you might not have the option to apply for a student visa from onshore. Simply put, you might be at the risk of an outright visa rejection if you apply for a student visa in Australia itself. Thus, in such a case you would have to get back to your home country and then again apply for a student visa.
Why it Can be Risky to Convert a Tourist Visa to Student Visa in Australia?
One major area of focus to apply for a student visa is that you need to have a Genuine Temporary Entrant(GTE). To accomplish this requirement, you have to prove to the Australian Immigration Authorities that you have genuine intentions of returning to Australia after the completion of your course. For this, the Australian Department will consider some of the important requirements. These are:
- The circumstances in your home country- To check if there is any unrest(political or military) in your home country, why didn’t you choose to study in your own country, or if your economical abilities allow your home country to support your temporary visa in Australia.
- Your existing circumstances in Australia- This implies the incentives for you to stay in Australia and your knowledge & skills to reside in Australia.
- Your Immigration history- An immigration history will tell even if you are eligible to have a temporary visa to stay in Australia.
- Your course’s value that will help you in future – This requirement will tell about the relevancy of the course that you have enrolled in to have great employment prospects in Australia.
- Your compliance record with other visa conditions- This is to check your compliance record with the conditions of your existing Australian tourist visa or any other visa that you have held in the past.
Or, your mentioned intention to see your compliance conditions for which you’re granted an Australian Tourist Visa.
Why are you not Granted a Student Visa in Australia?
At the time of visa assessment for a student visa, you will have to check if there are any 8503 conditions levied on your tourist visa application. According to condition 8503, after entering Australia an applicant cannot be granted a substantive visa, but only a protection visa whilst the holder remains in Australia.
On a visitor visa, condition 8503 needs to be levied if you are getting sponsorship from your family member or a relative. However, the Australian Home Affairs Department can also impose this condition even for people who are not sponsored by any family member/relative.
You need to have this condition 8503 waived off if it appears to be on your tourist visa application. For a waiver, you will have to prove to the Department that your circumstances have undergone a major change while you were on a tourist visa in Australia. Besides, your circumstances must be compelling enough for the authorities to trust you and get your condition waived off.
Eligibility
Before you can reach any conclusion, you should check your visa conditions i.e. if your visa has 8503 – No further stay condition attached to your visa, then you will not be able to apply any further visa application onshore. In addition to this, there may be other factors that may affect your eligibility and success of the visa application.
Conclusion
Until now, you must have realized that conversion from visitor visa to student visa Australia is quite complex. You should have a crystal-clear knowledge of the rules and regulations of both visas. It might be a little tiring for you to do this on your own, perhaps you should reach for a migration agent in Adelaide to help you by extending its expertise in managing such visa applications.
Watch the Video: Tourist to Student Visa
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